Transparency needed in recruiting Business
Why I started MaxSport
Not so long ago I was in the position of having two sons that from a very young age had dreams/aspirations of playing their favorite sport in college. I being a normal parent wanted to ensure we did everything possible for those dreams to come true.
Recruiting Companies
Shortly after my sons’ started playing AAU tournaments there were people contacting me with predictions about my son(s) getting scholarships that knew NOTHING about my son(s). These companies were asking for over two thousand dollars to get my son(s) a scholarship. The sales pitch was to prey on my desperate need to ensure my sons would realize their dream of playing college athletics (again they knew very little about my son). Most of the companies were leaning on the desperateness of every parent and that is WE WILL DO ANYTHING FOR OUR KIDS!!!!
AAU basketball Organizations
Most AAU coaches/organizations have the mentality that if we were playing in the tournaments, then kids were getting seen and coaches will notice us. This is untrue. Very few organizations have a recruiting director (or similar position) to educate, promote, and provide services to increase exposure to college coaches.
Recruiters
Recruiters are the “hype" guys, overstating a recruit's talent while keeping relationships with coaches. This is a contradictory process. Recruiters have to overstate/hype the recruit (to sell to recruiters) while maintaining the respect/trust of the college coaches. It would be nearly impossible to be successful without being dishonest.
The final confirmation to start MaxSportRecruit
I was seeing extremely talented kids that wanted to play in college (like my sons) that were not getting connected to college coaches. In addition, I saw college coaches desperately needing players. When a person talks about being recruited by a college, most people think of what they see on TV. Coaches traveling all over America to pack into one gym to watch one play. There would be 25-30 coaches in that gym. That does happen, but the majority of college kids are similar to my sons. Their schools are on a recruiting budget trying to find the best players possible in the most economical way.
During that time is when the MaxSport process was created. We started with team email campaigns. My oldest son’s AAU team was a “put together” team that was playing together for the 1st time. I was asked by the AUU organizer to create an email with each player’s information and send it to Big 12 coaches. I ended up sending to 3500+ coaches across the nation. Our AAU coach was contacted immediately by several coaches asking about players on the team. The very next tournament we were playing in an offsite AUX GYM (45 miles from Main Gym). Right before our game started, 3 D1 Coaches from 3 different schools came walking into the gym holding a printout of the email that I had sent. That’s when I knew I was onto something.
FYI - That team had 5 players that went on to get scholarships at D1, D2, or NJCAA Colleges - ALL first exposure to their respective schools was via the email we sent, then coming to watch our team play.